Character concepts @dungeonsnconcepts - Tumblr Blog

Saw this on a Facebook page.

Love it as a character, and you can totally find other images that are similar, so you'd have multiple "character" images. Awesome!

Thinking it'd be a warforged, as tech priests are mostly mech anyhow.

And I'm thinking to cross class forge cleric and battle smith artificer.

The iron defender from the battle smith could latch to your back, acting as mechtendrites (extra mech arms from/for tech priests), and as an only level 1 forge cleric war forged you can have an AC of 21.

Youd be effective

So I ran the cleric quintet for over a year before it died. There was a sorta ugly breakup between two of the players, another had twins, and the last moved away. So the game died. But I learned some interesting things during this time.

Book 3 sucks as a campaign. Or at least, my memory of it does. "They get attacked by super assassins while doing downtime activities through the winter" is just.... Weak.

And I was trying to do a whole political intrigue thing because there was stuff about the magistrate not wanting to form a militia, but then putting in a weak effort to form a militia... It just wasn't good what I did. Took two families from water deep and moved them over to Caradoon. But that is what didn't work.

What I want to do is re mention what DID work.

Book one (evil cleric in the catacombs below the priestly library, unleashes the curse of desires onto them 'the Chaos Curse')? Amazing. Should have pulled more from the players for this though. I had a player who wanted to find their pet as their back story. They should have lapsed under the curse and gone on a rampage about that! I had one who was with their parents. That could have been much more impactful!

Anyways. Durzil commanding the skeletons, then the mummy, even the way I made the big bad immune to non-critical damage until he got burned by the brasier, or got hit by the druids skunk spray and lost his robe.

tigwex

Tumblr Monster Hunter D&D enthusiasts!

After some thought, I've decided to release the homebrew Monster Hunter Mystery Dungeon-based system manual written by myself and @metalharbor! You can use it as you feel fit, and I'd love to get tagged in stuff about any cool campaigns that are made from this :) For all of your monster D&D needs, you have: - The Manual & Monster Creation Guide - Basic Item & Consumable Doc - Pre-made Starter Monster Bestiary - CptLogan's 5e Monster Hunter Sheet with Monster-campaign edits - Random statblock MH plant, fish, mushroom etc doc

Have fun monstering!

dungeonsnconcepts

AWESOME!

Trap in one of the MTG stories has me thinking of something to use against my players. Lol.

It's a wizard's lair. Automotons work in it, rebuilding each other and resetting traps whenever there is no one in there. 30ft hallway to start, roll a d6 and that many spaces down the hallway is a pit trap (dc20 to spot, DC 16 to avoid, 10ft deep, 1d6 falling damage, Modron waiting at the bottom to attack whomever falls in)

Next room is a series of dart traps. Holes in the walls are only a dc10 to spot. DC 18 to spot the fine trip lines that trip half of the darts. DC20 to spot the plates on the ground that trigger the other half. 6 traps, 1d4 piercing damage, 1d4 poison damage (maybe more for higher levels). I imagine this room as stonework that has a tree's roots growing through the right hand wall and across the floor, makging some of it difficult terrain. This is also the first room that the central conceit of the dungeon can be noticed- there are ghosts linked to the dungeon as well, that only a necromancer or priest focused on death/life can see.

The last room is a math puzzle. A checkered floor requires the players to input the wizards name- Urza- as if the plates were an alphabet. There will be a reflective roof that shows letters on some of the plates as a hint, but this is where the cheat comes in- the triggers under the plates can be held up by the spirits, preventing the input of a digit. If a wrong digit or one out of order is pressed, two duodrons drop in, and need to be fought. This resets the plates.

This does require the players to know the opponent is a cheater. And that he's a trickster.

If the name is put in, one of the squares in the middle of the room opens on a hinge. Inside is a magical artifact. And then the dungeon starts collapsing.

#dnd trap

Based idea for a campaign: the grand Modron March.

The players start off with some generic stuff, dealing with goblins or maybe running through one of the starter sets. After that though, a messenger comes to town. The Modron are coming. Thousands of them. No one knows why the great March is happening on the material plane (it usually just entails modrons of nearly every class going around the outer planes, not to the prime material), but there are thousands of monodrones walking across the world. They were spotted coming across the deserts to the east, in perfect grid patterns, and they've destroyed some small towns. It doesn't seem as though they're actively trying to destroy anything, but they kill anyone who gets in their way, and destroy buildings seemingly at random (if they aren't aligned with a cardinal direction).

The large cities are horrified. They are willing to hire any and all adventurers to deal with the problem. People who are behind the line of Modron control are actually finding that everything has been put into perfect order, so while many things are destroyed, life is fine.

Dang it, need to write this down.

Alibaster awoke the aboleth that is destroying the unnamed town, and his magnificent mansion is afflicting the feywild, so the druegar have been pushed out of the dark because the depths have mingled with the shadowfel.

dungeonsnconcepts

Turning the Cleric Quintet by R. A. Salvatore into a campaign

Its my favorite dnd book series, so turning them into a campaign sounds fun.

Key points:

Players start in the Edificiant Library

Keirkan Rufo will be antagonistic towards players, but is a cleric of the library

3 days downtime to start, reaching level 2.

Library is attacked by the chaos Curse, and Barjin, a human agent/cleric of Talona, goddess of poison

Barjin is supported by Druzil, an evil Imp that is directly responsible for creating the Curse- in a ever smoking bottle.

Players realize/ have hints they need to close the evil bottle to turn off Curse.

A poorly controlled Mummy, an enchanted zombie, 15 skeletons, the Imp, and the evil Cleric must be dealt with.

Skeletons are scattered throughout catacombs, and a DC 12 perception or survival will cause players to notice a pull towards the correct direction.

Druzil will flee if hurt, overturning the brazier and harming the cleric and/or mummy as necessary.

Should be at least level 3 when this is completed, as the following will be heavier. One week downtime.

An emissary from Shilmestra arrives demanding help, the elves are being attacked/wiped out

Orgillon leader Ragnor is leading 8000 goblinoids against the 236 elves. He is also an agent of Talona, but not a cleric, nor directly aligned; thus supported by Dorigen (Wizard, aligned with Talona) and Druzil (resummoned, as necessary)

Party asked to go to Shilmestra's aid. Rufo sent as well.

Ambush while travelling to Shilmestra

Giant encounter

Burning forest

Meet king of elves. Is ready to quit, but there is disagreement among the elves. Some are talking about attempting rituals that will improve chances. Require player assistance.

Elvish rejuvenation ritual causes level up to 5/6.

Attacked by Dorigen, Rufo shows cowardice.

Possible capture by goblinoids

Dorigen shows her barbarian helper

Second ritual at Al Drunim hill, raises the woods to aid in war. (500 ents show up, plus additional random druidic effects).

Killing Ragnor ends goblinoid aggression.

Players approaching level 10

Players are asked to go to Caridoon to study/research Talona, and the ongoing issues. Warn the town that something seems wrong.

Meet wizard (encounter involving illusions in wizard tower)

Assassins

Super assassins

Oh God what's up with these assassins

Super ghost mega assassin

Nice firbolg

Ultra evil enchanted artifact

Hit level 13/14.

Need to destroy that artifact. It is like... Super Fuckin evil

Learn that there is an evil army. Research complete, know who this all is being run by.

Time to buckle down and be super heroes. Hit level 15+

Have to go deal with the army. No big deal. Have to walk there.

On the way, gonna bump into a big old red dragon, who they COULD use to destroy the artifact, if they've still got it.

If not, gonna buff the last boss with it. Sucks to suck.

Super powered evil wizard in large castle. Super epic dungeon crawl from hell.

Kill him? Good job! Time to report back, and have a party! Also, epic tier loot.

Time for things to go wrong.

Some idiot drank the chaos Curse. Drank. The. Curse.

Became some type of super demonic vampire. Took over the entire library, made them all full fledged vampires too.

Time for a group of level 17/18/19s to clear out a bunch of vampires in their own lair. Gonna be a shit show.

Keirkan Rufo is the personification of the Curse. Gonna be a heck of a fight, and if they kill him (somehow...) the library will collapse utterly. One or two clerics may survive. The library will need to be rebuilt.

dungeonsnconcepts

Ah, first contact with the players definitely wrecked this outline.

Killed ragnor and are only level 6. I'm thinking of adding some buffer to ensure this campaign lasts through to level 20.

Points that still need to be completed:

Players are asked to go to Caridoon with the priests of Ilmater; while they are there they should take a message to the noble houses of the city (a branch of both the Sultlue and the Ulbrinter, both noble houses in Waterdeep, have set up in Caridoon, and run the city mutually), such that they will prepare for potentially more attacks, as both of the other large entities (the library, and the forest) have already been assaulted. Headmaster Avery Schell will follow in a week's time to make sure that preparations are underway.

The part where there are two noble families in the town becomes the central tension of the next arc. While both have been good in coordinating and cooperating for the last 6 years since the last mayor passed away without a heir, and any issues regarding infrastructure or the other nuances of politics that have come up have been resolved cleanly and quickly, they can't see eye to eye on the thought of creating a militia to prepare for this "unsubstantiated threat"

The Sultlue won't have any of it. They've just missed three trade shipments from the town on the other side of the lake this month (false hydra), and they've never had to form a militia in the past. The head of the house, Piloray Sultlue, is actually concerned about his bottom line. Militias cost money to arm and maintain, and he's absolutely unwilling to for that fact mainly. However, he refuses to admit that, and instead stalls and comes up with various other ways of denying it. "the elves fighting some goblins is not uncommon. Of course you were there. Oh, and of course it seemed like a HUGE hoard. But really, it's nothing abnormal. Those busy bodies in the library are over reacting. A mad cleric attacked them? Clearly not something we need to be worried about here. The only temple in town is that of Ilmater, and they're left well enough alone by anyone who knows better."

The Ulbrinters are willing to help, but only if the burden be shouldered by both families. Their leader, Meredith Ulbrinter, will just tell the party to convince the Sultlue to front half the costs, what, say, 5, 6 thousand gold? From each house. That should be enough to get the arms and armour and training done. Then they can hold onto the 500 odd soldiers for a year, costing 100 gold each month to feed and pay them, one training/sparring session a week for maintenance.

The next day the party will see men wearing the families crest putting up signs that say who to talk to about signing up for the militia. A curfew will be enacted, to keep people from

If the party completes three quests for the Sultlue they will begin to be willing to supply for it. Deal with that supply chain issue, and then we can think about it. Oh, and there's been some talk of a ghost ship on the lake. Look into that, so I'm not worried about supplying food for this army. We heard there were bandits sighted on the road northeast of here.

Oh did I say they were the main conflict? I forgot about the super assassins. During all of this you'll be set up at the Dragon's Codpiece, where the bellboy, Brennan, a 16 year old, is the son of the owner, and he's going to get possessed by the bbeg of this arc, Ghost.

Also those bandits to the Northwest are literally a small group of the assassins that are hoping to jump you if you leave town in that direction.

The main group of them has set up in a house to the southwest that used to be owned by some farmers. They killed the family, and Ghost and Vander (the firbolg that is Ghost's captive/victim) are based out of there.

If at any point the party kills Ghost, or manages to get Vander on their side, he has the bag of gold (1000gp, with another 7k to be paid once they've killed you)

Session 10 prep

The notes the players found in Dorigen's tent:

They saw dorigen assault deny ridge with ragnor.

The next night is when Keirkan met with Druzil, but there's no note about that. It would have been then that ragnor was deciding to make a push south, something the players avoided because they were skirting the edge of the forest heading north at the time. Dorigen writes to ragnor a note that says

"I've set up camp back at deny ridge, which should allow me to catch them BEFORE they can complete whatever ritual they've got planned" this note is crumpled, and has a reply written directly on it "while you chase silly rituals, I WILL DEAL WITH THER CAMPS. do what you want, but keep your damned pets away from my troops"

Another note is written on fine paper, and seems to be a list of generic troop numbers and divisions of the camps (under illusionary script, it's a note to "Sir Bonaduce, it has come to my attention that the library was not weakened as much as expected. They sent a group to the woods, which was unwelcome and unexpected, but one of whom is the very tool that barjin manipulated in his attempt. He will be of use, or he will be eliminated by our mutual friend"

There are three other attempts to write this note that are all torn up or scratched out, illegible aside from seeing that they all mention the library, the honorific name at the top, and barjin.

The rest of the papers are legitately troop and supply numbers. Myev is the only one who can muddle through the paperwork with an hour of reading and see there have been full shipments of supplies (of all sorts) brought from the north west.

Also there is one set of notes that has phonetic descriptions

- Doween Doon, star ritual, cleansing (this is crossed out and says unimportant/ineffective under where it was written

- shill ditch tree ah - it's a place and it's possibly a mythallar?

- 3 to 4 hundred elves, only a handful are outside of fighting ages. They have lots of bows, limited armour and swords, and seemingly no food with them but always find plenty.

- if pushed hard enough, and their spirits broken, could be forced out of the region? There are talks of fleeing? Ragnor has been more effective in breaking their spirits than I could have expected.

-the bloody imp has been spying on me, I swear it. I've sent it to keep an eye on our information, as the distance weakens his telepathy, but I shouldn't trust that alibaster doesn't know my every thought whenever the imp is around. This part is scratched out till it tore the paper, and can only be read if mending And investigation are used.

The Quintet session 6 prep

So, you've left the library, following Elbereth back to his woodland home. Keirkan Ruffo in tow, you spent the day on the road-much to the dismay of a few of you, as it's slick with the spring thaw, and still briskly cold in the morning when you leave.

Someone roll a d20; you're determining how the days travel went (you had to dismount for 3 hours in the middle of the day due to the mud)

What did you talk about throughout the day? Keirkan is looking around wide eyed - he's only ever been in the library, or in Caridoon. Elbereth is very intent on the road ahead; although you do see him leaning forward and soothing his horse and talking to it several times. Someone overhears him using temmisara's name. If asked, he says "he is the king of horses, truly my best friend, and smarter than you'd think". He reveres this horse.

At night he says it'll be a short one, as he is intent on getting home. He shares that he feels the bugbears are the scouts for a larger force, although no true evidence of that is apparent.

Pc involvement

Elminster will be masquerading as the mage that lives outside of Caridoon. He has used a spell to become Elmara again, and is not interacting with the world for this time; she is simply a mage studying to develop new spells.

The half orcs that raised Tristan's character (Myev, the half elf) will be involved in the war on shilmistra: unwillingly. They will be sent to the front lines to attack the elven lines as soon as the players join them: punishment because they didn't participate on the last pushing attack. They will all totally distrust Karfu (Kay's), ad he's an orc, and the full blooded orcs are the ones pushing the hardest.

In this arc there will be the time that Elzbeth, the elven prince, asks the party to join him in hunting down the enemy mage. While they travel, they'll find they are pushed by orcs on one side, but that there is an opening in the west. Elzbeth will warn everyone that it is a part of the woods best left alone, as "the witch" lives there. It'll be Tasha, in a Baba yaga hut; I'll read through the curse of strahd's section on that. She's holed up and just killing anything that comes into her sphere of influence. Regardless of what all happens around her, she'll be teleporting her hut and the surrounding area into a pocket dimension when the battle goes past her hut; the players will overhear a elven scout reporting that the suspect area of the forest is simply a glade in the trees now.

After the orcs are repelled, the assassination subplot will open up. I think it should be during this one that the players hear about a chimera that was sighted nearby. The PCs might jump to the conclusion (correctly) that this is their lion, having been transformed by the evil wizard. It will NOT attack the PCs, instead it will visibly fight with its dragon and ram heads in order to prevent an attack, and then it'll talk to Lucky.

Prep for session 4

They're fighting Barjin. They've hit him once, and it didn't seem to hurt him. Druzil came in, called the players scary, and took off. At this point, a greater demon is going to start forming in that brazier that he fled through. I'm going to give the PCs a perception check, if they get 10 or more they notice its coming through. If they get a 15 or more they'll notice that the fire changed from green to bluish after Druzil passed through it. Then it'll be Myev's turn.

I'll roll the mummy into the turn order as well, and we will see when he shows up. When he comes in, he'll immediately go after Barjin and Barjin will reach for where the stone was on the altar: he needs the necromancer stone in order to get the mummy under control!

The mummy will push him into the brazier, dousing them both in magical flames, and ruining his robes. Then they all can actually hurt him badly and quickly, realizing that he is now vulnerable. He will act superior until this happens, when he grimaces and starts taking things very seriously. They can absolutely kill him, but if they make any attempt not to, such as knocking him out, he will stand up and attack again when the bottle is stoppered and Karfu and Lucky are unconscious- any attack hitting him will kill him immediately though, as its a false strength brought on by desperation.

In the chest they can find a stopper that matches the bottle, wrapped in a fine cloth, some clothes, a key, a gem encrusted bowl worth 50GP, and a journal.

The journal will describe how years ago he was a cleric of a being that he doesn't name anywhere in the journal, as even though it is years hence he's clearly afraid to say their name. It then describes the order of paladins that came through as his God-in-the-flesh and their group of clerics were set to take over the region in the deep southwest. The next few entries are set months apart, as he wandered the lands, robbed of his clerical powers since the death of his God-to-be. one notable entry is about 2 years old and simply says "I've arrived at Castle Trinity. Taking control of the trimunitive has been simple, although the other arms are troublesome." you can see based on how vague his few entries before that are, that he was always suspicious someone might read this diary and so he left no specifics about where this was, who he's referring to, or anything of the sort. His most recent entry describes “I tricked one of the fool priests above into opening the bottle- a necessary part of the ritual, having an innocent initiate the curse that would infect their holy place. The “Most Fatal Horror” as it was so fittingly named is a physical representation of my goddess on the material plane. I so wish I could see them tearing themselves apart with their simplest whims! tomorrow, Ill lead my undead to take the place; an easy first victory that will cement me as the leader!”

Stoppering the bottle will cause Karfu and Lucky to immediately fall unconscious. I'll ask the others for arcana and religion checks. On a 10 plus, they'll know that they need to bless the bottle somehow, in order to contain its evil. This is a possibly sentient artifact of pure evil, and it needs to be contained by more than a stopper. Dousing it in holy water, putting a holy symbol of Denir on it, dousing it in clerical incense, they need to do *something*. Once they do, the others will wake up, and the mist will dissipate rapidly.

In the hidden room is a very small chest that the key opens, on an empty armoire looking piece of furniture. In there is a bag with 5 diamonds worth 30GP each, a spell scroll (2nd level) of Tasha’s Mind Whip, and a Dagger of Venom.

Further investigation of the area will not reveal much; it is plain stonework and the undead are leaderless- they will attempt to follow whomever holds on to the necromancer’s stone. The priests above will NOT take kindly to anyone who holds onto that cursed stone- they want to see it destroyed.

The players going upstairs will find a lot of very confused acolytes. Two people are being seen to by healers for overeating- the dragonborn for having eaten something that clearly wasn’t healthy- and a human, but that's clearly a lot less than how many it could have been. Other priests are wandering around checking on each other, seeming dazed. Both Lucky and Karfu understand this, as they feel light headed and as though the last day was a dream, and they were only partially affected.

No one in the party was aware of it, but in one of the headmaster’s rooms there was a group of priests to the neutral god of suffering, Illimater. They committed self destruction while the party was in the catacombs- one of the headmasters will mention this to the party, after asking they meet him the next day. They will be asked to remain at the library until a group of Illimatari priests from Caridoon can come speak to them- it’ll take about a week. Downtime activities- The halflings will find many willing to help them look for “labs” that could have taken Denis the Lion. They will read that there are no known labs in the local area, but one of the priests who gets closer to them will attempt a spell to locate the lion, only getting vague portents that they are on the right track.

Four days into their downtime, Elzbreth will arrive. He’s an elven prince, and he demands to speak to those who defeated the evil here. He has a glove that bears that familiar insignia- and will ask if they know what it means. Bugbears at the edge of the forest were wearing this glove on one had, and he wants to know why a group of five organized seeming bugbears would be wearing this. he takes OFFENSE at the sight of Karfu. He also has a strange look on his face when he sees Myev.

He will ask that these people join him in returning to his king, as well as a group of the priests. Only two priests will be able to be spared, as they are trying to put their house in order- Keirkan Rufo, and Nick, both of whom act as though they’ve got something to make amends for.

Session 3 planning

The party is in the catacombs now. They severely hurt Druzil (he had 2 hit points left after they attacked him), then dismantled about 15 skeletons that he'd had under his control. There are only about 10 skeletons left in the catacombs, and the ghouls that will come running into the catacombs in about 15 minutes. They can find Prince Kalifid, the mummy, guarding the door to Barjin. I've got lots of plans for both that encounter, and the one with Barjin. Might have the ghouls come in behind them as well.

As the players enter the southern half of the catacombs, they'll hear hooting and hollering behind them, as the ghouls start coming. They may also find the skeletons ahead of them, although they seem unintelligent and like they aren't even actively attacking anyone.

When they see the mummy, I'll read an excerpt about "as you round the corner you see there is a collapsed wall here, waist high, or chin high to the halflings. Across the room you see a door with light coming from its jams, the first light you've seen since entering down here. Next to the door, in the shadows of the room so dark that even those of you with dark vision find it hard to parse, you see a sarcophogus leaning against the wall. Two red eyes peer at you out of that darkness; roll initiative!"

The first thing the mummy does, at initiative 20, is use frightful presence. DC 15 wis or become afraid. Then he will use his turn to use it again. He will advance threateningly as well. Hopefully someone will smack him with radiant stuff. Any radiant damage over 15points will cause him to turn away from the players and storm off deeper into the catacombs. As soon as they've beat him, they level up and gain the effects of a short rest as they prepare themselves for what is obviously the source of the problems.

As they approach the door they will all roll Con or Wis, DC 14, against the curse. If someone gets above 20, they see it on the ground. If no one does, anyone not effected starts to see it. Those affected are asked what they want to do, most likely they run at the door and try to kick it in. The door is warded with a spell that will shock whoever first crosses the threshold for 4 damage.

I'll give a quick description of the room (bed to your left as you enter, with a chest at the foot of it, to your right is an altar framed on either side by tapestries, there is a rich looking red and gold rug on the floor, and the room is well lit by a braizer on the far side of it)

Session 2 prep

So, as the session starts I need to know what Karfu is doing. It’s about 6:30 in the evening- for that matter, as Myev is heading out from the room where she’s been working, she sees Karfu banging on the door in the main chapel.

Also, I know Lucky and Finn headed to their rooms shortly after dealing with the injured acolyte, but you both realize you haven’t had dinner at this point.

In the mess hall there is a small group, about ten priests and acolytes, at the northern end of the room, closest to the kitchens. They do not seem inclined to talk to the players if prompted. This seems like too few people for dinner time, but that is not terribly odd. Nothing Karfu and/or Myev does will get normal responses out of people- the curse hut everyone who was present when it first went off VERY strongly, but it is now insidiously adding more and more effect.

If the players go to bed, I will have them each make a Wis or Con save (DC13) whichever is higher for that particular player. If they fail, I will obviously ask what their character desires at that moment- and they’re going to be compelled to pursue it unless another PC shakes them or slaps them.

Newander is back in the library, although the hallways seem oddly empty. He’s wandering, and if he bumps into any PCs he will act afraid of them, and once he learns they are unaffected, he will latch on telling them about how Arcite and Cleo have turned into beasts and refuse to turn back, and how the air in the library feels wrong and perverted; like the natural order is being attacked here.

The mess hall at breakfast is more aptly described with those words than ever you’ve seen it. there is a group of priests and acolytes sitting at the northern end of the room- more than last night- closest to the kitchens, absolutely Gorging them selves. You see that one of them has about ten bottles of various wines around him, and he does not look inclined to share. The two chefs are constantly cooking, and they don’t appear to have stopped at all overnight.

There are priests whove locked themselves in various rooms. Others have left the library entirely. A pack of Oghman Priests and Priestesses are wandering the halls looking to get into a wrestling match with anyone who looks formidable- Nick, their “leader” specifically wants to wrestle with Karfu (and if he starts winning he might not stop). If anyone gets more than a 20 on their save vs compulsion (which saves will occur any time they seem to want something), they can detect a pinkish mist hanging around the floor and particularly clouding around people as if clinging to them. Mulvey has gone missing.

Not sure how the players will notice it- if they go outside they’re accosted by the squirrel, if inside there is a secret path through the cellar- but they have to get to the catacombs today. I have three encounters designed for in there; They need to reach them.